In the future, the Gopher Tortoise in South America will no longer exist due to the damaged environment caused by Homo sapiens . The continuous illegal consummation of gopher tortoises by humans majorly decreased their population. This is also a consequence of deforestation and the expansion of logging causing the food source to disappear. Furthermore as the climate gets warmer (global warming crisis), the burrows that once could protect the tortoise from the sun are now transmitting heat waves too. Instead, they have evolved into Caherbi Fostura ( Cavus Fossura) Although they have similar scientific classification, they are completely different.They weigh 50 kg and will weigh more over time.
First of all, they have huge differences in diet. Unlike Gopher Tortoises, Caherib Fostura will be omnivores. The flexibility diet allows them to feed on almost anything to minus the possibility of starvation. Secondly, their shell structure are less domed and lighter. Through out this page, you will learn everything about the Caherbi Fostura
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Reptilia
Order
Testudines
Suborder
Cryptodira
Superfamily
Testudinoidea
Family
Testudinidae
Genus
Cavus
Species
C. Fossura
Caherbi Fostura
Future Map
In the future, when the continents are all collided to each other, the world map would be different, Caherbi Fostura will exist only in North, South America and southern boarders of Africa. As mentioned previously, Caherbi Fostura will be omnivores. With global warming as an issue, plants like longleaf pine, turkey old sandhills, pine flatwood and savanna, coastal dune, barrier island and oak scrubs will die out because of the heat. Therefore they will feed on anything they can reach, either plantations like leaves, ferns, savanna or rotten meat left over by grizzly bear , foxes and coyotes . Because of this diet, they can live under harsh conditions such as drought.
Example of Caherbi Fostura's Burrow
They will continue to dig burrows however, their burrows will be deep down to avoid the sunshine. (Shown on left hand side).If they construct their burrows like the above, the sunshine’s heat will not be easily passed through. Also, they can maintain their own body temperature to 29°c without being interrupted by the outdoor. In order to avoid the sun and to have a stable food source, their burrows are near a lot of vegetations and face the west side.
Illustration of habitat for Caherbi Fostura
The diagram above will be a possible habitat for the Caherbi Fostura. The burrow facing west will be always be around where there are plenty of food resource. For example, while the predator hunts the prey( deer) the tortoise will be patiently waiting for its turn to consume the left over meat. Very similar, they will share their 'house' with hundred other animals- mostly reptiles. This is very crucial to the ecosystem because as reptiles they can't stay under the hot sun for too long. Once they warm up their bodies they will have to run for shelter, some under trees, rocks etc.
By the future, it is predicted that plantations will be very dry and might easily cause a bushfire. This is when reptiles like snakes, scrub lizards, other animals such as rabbits, armidillos, skunks and amphibians find Caherbi Fostura's burrow useful for temporary shelter. Since the burrow could be 50 ft long, it can fit in many animals and save lives of others. Keystone species like this future animal can help to sustain its community or what is left after the impacts made human beings.
Structural Adaptations:
1)The Caherbi Fostura's leg structure are very different from the others. It is longer and thicker like and elephants legs. It's structure allows the tortoises to run faster and because of the distance the plastron has with the ground, the heat affect its own temperature. The spade is an extension bone sticking out of Caherbi Fostura’s legs. It is 7 cm long and acts like a shovel. When not used the bone will hide back close to the Ulna, however if needed it will extend and help Fostura to dig big, long and deep burrows. Gopher Tortoises had no spade; instead they had ‘flippers’ like front legs. Since they only have two flippers, it takes them days to build themselves burrows. This future generation does not need to worry about the precious time spent on digging burrows because the spade bone is situated on every single leg. To protect itself from being hurt, the spade bone is covered with rough scales and will shed the skin twice a year. Furthermore, if the spade bone breaks during a battle or attack, it will grow back.
2)The head has two unique features that help the animal to find and consume food. Their first special feature is the pair of ears. Located near the eyes, it is commonly mistaken as the second pair of eyes. Although their size are just a little bigger then their eyes but its extremely sensitive. It has flaps to cover its ears while digging the burrows, and there are some sand residue left from digging, the ears will be cleansed by specialised oil that comes out from the parotid gland. The most important part is with these extremely sensitive ears they can listen carefully to find their food – meat left over by other predators. The second special feature is the mouth. Different from others, it is more like an eagle’s beak because it needs to tear meat out in order to consume. Furthermore with this beak, they can easily snap off branches to eat the leaves and other fibrous vegetation.
Behavioural Adaptations :
1)The Caherbi Fostura loves to be clean and because of this behaviour, Caherbi Fostura’s nickname is Spotless King. They like to be very tidy and spotlessly clean when it come to personal hygiene. These generations’ tortoises might be stronger because of the strong adaptations; however they often die from severe skin diseases. Therefore, it is very crucial for them to keep their skin clean by getting showers. Also, when there are rubbishes for example dried leaves and scrubs in the mouth of the burrows, they will remove them to keep the entrance of their home clear. This way, it is easier for them to crawl in and out of their home. If the rain season is coming, the tortoises would often crawl out of their burrows to ‘wash’ themselves. Being clean and tidy helps the tortoises to prolong their live.
2)Every animal has its own way to escape from predators attack and most of them run, jump and leap. However, tortoises are quite different, only some species like the Pan Cake tortoise can run fast enough because of its light, soft shell. Therefore, most of the tortoises sit still and retract 4 limbs and head. Every tortoise has the ability to hide in the best place- its shell. Once feel threatened the Caherbi Fostura has two ways to escape. First, will be hiding by retracting the legs and head into the humongous ‘box’. Uniquely born, this generations shell is light enough for them to run with their longer limbs. Originally, because of the short legs and heavy shells, the tortoises cant run, instead it chooses to use the extra space in the shell and started to retract the head and limbs. Yet, the regeneration tortoises have long legs and lighter shell allowing them to perform both hide and run .
Physiological Adaptation:
Lactobacillus casei
The future tortoises will eat a lot of vegetation and meat. Since they aren’t as big as humans, or Galapagos Tortoises, their intestines and stomach will be relatively small. It would be impossible to digest plantation and meat with their small stomach and intestine. An insufficient amount of gastric juice will be produced to digest only small parts of the food. Without proper dissolving of food, nutrients wont be retrieved. This is why in every Caherbi Fostura, there are micro fauna such as bacteria round worm in their intestines to aid digestion of fibrous plantation.
Caherbi Fostura
In the future, the Gopher Tortoise in South America will no longer exist due to the damaged environment caused by Homo sapiens . The continuous illegal consummation of gopher tortoises by humans majorly decreased their population. This is also a consequence of deforestation and the expansion of logging causing the food source to disappear. Furthermore as the climate gets warmer (global warming crisis), the burrows that once could protect the tortoise from the sun are now transmitting heat waves too. Instead, they have evolved into Caherbi Fostura ( Cavus Fossura) Although they have similar scientific classification, they are completely different.They weigh 50 kg and will weigh more over time.
First of all, they have huge differences in diet. Unlike Gopher Tortoises, Caherib Fostura will be omnivores. The flexibility diet allows them to feed on almost anything to minus the possibility of starvation. Secondly, their shell structure are less domed and lighter. Through out this page, you will learn everything about the Caherbi Fostura
Scientific Classification:
In the future, when the continents are all collided to each other, the world map would be different, Caherbi Fostura will exist only in North, South America and southern boarders of Africa. As mentioned previously, Caherbi Fostura will be omnivores. With global warming as an issue, plants like longleaf pine, turkey old sandhills, pine flatwood and savanna, coastal dune, barrier island and oak scrubs will die out because of the heat. Therefore they will feed on anything they can reach, either plantations like leaves, ferns, savanna or rotten meat left over by grizzly bear , foxes and coyotes . Because of this diet, they can live under harsh conditions such as drought.
The diagram above will be a possible habitat for the Caherbi Fostura. The burrow facing west will be always be around where there are plenty of food resource. For example, while the predator hunts the prey( deer) the tortoise will be patiently waiting for its turn to consume the left over meat. Very similar, they will share their 'house' with hundred other animals- mostly reptiles. This is very crucial to the ecosystem because as reptiles they can't stay under the hot sun for too long. Once they warm up their bodies they will have to run for shelter, some under trees, rocks etc.
By the future, it is predicted that plantations will be very dry and might easily cause a bushfire. This is when reptiles like snakes, scrub lizards, other animals such as rabbits, armidillos, skunks and amphibians find Caherbi Fostura's burrow useful for temporary shelter. Since the burrow could be 50 ft long, it can fit in many animals and save lives of others. Keystone species like this future animal can help to sustain its community or what is left after the impacts made human beings.
Structural Adaptations:
1)The Caherbi Fostura's leg structure are very different from the others. It is longer and thicker like and elephants legs. It's structure allows the tortoises to run faster and because of the distance the plastron has with the ground, the heat affect its own temperature. The spade is an extension bone sticking out of Caherbi Fostura’s legs. It is 7 cm long and acts like a shovel. When not used the bone will hide back close to the Ulna, however if needed it will extend and help Fostura to dig big, long and deep burrows. Gopher Tortoises had no spade; instead they had ‘flippers’ like front legs. Since they only have two flippers, it takes them days to build themselves burrows. This future generation does not need to worry about the precious time spent on digging burrows because the spade bone is situated on every single leg. To protect itself from being hurt, the spade bone is covered with rough scales and will shed the skin twice a year. Furthermore, if the spade bone breaks during a battle or attack, it will grow back.
2)The head has two unique features that help the animal to find and consume food. Their first special feature is the pair of ears. Located near the eyes, it is commonly mistaken as the second pair of eyes. Although their size are just a little bigger then their eyes but its extremely sensitive. It has flaps to cover its ears while digging the burrows, and there are some sand residue left from digging, the ears will be cleansed by specialised oil that comes out from the parotid gland. The most important part is with these extremely sensitive ears they can listen carefully to find their food – meat left over by other predators. The second special feature is the mouth. Different from others, it is more like an eagle’s beak because it needs to tear meat out in order to consume. Furthermore with this beak, they can easily snap off branches to eat the leaves and other fibrous vegetation.
Behavioural Adaptations :
1)The Caherbi Fostura loves to be clean and because of this behaviour, Caherbi Fostura’s nickname is Spotless King. They like to be very tidy and spotlessly clean when it come to personal hygiene. These generations’ tortoises might be stronger because of the strong adaptations; however they often die from severe skin diseases. Therefore, it is very crucial for them to keep their skin clean by getting showers. Also, when there are rubbishes for example dried leaves and scrubs in the mouth of the burrows, they will remove them to keep the entrance of their home clear. This way, it is easier for them to crawl in and out of their home. If the rain season is coming, the tortoises would often crawl out of their burrows to ‘wash’ themselves. Being clean and tidy helps the tortoises to prolong their live.
2)Every animal has its own way to escape from predators attack and most of them run, jump and leap. However, tortoises are quite different, only some species like the Pan Cake tortoise can run fast enough because of its light, soft shell. Therefore, most of the tortoises sit still and retract 4 limbs and head. Every tortoise has the ability to hide in the best place- its shell. Once feel threatened the Caherbi Fostura has two ways to escape. First, will be hiding by retracting the legs and head into the humongous ‘box’. Uniquely born, this generations shell is light enough for them to run with their longer limbs. Originally, because of the short legs and heavy shells, the tortoises cant run, instead it chooses to use the extra space in the shell and started to retract the head and limbs. Yet, the regeneration tortoises have long legs and lighter shell allowing them to perform both hide and run .
Physiological Adaptation:
The future tortoises will eat a lot of vegetation and meat. Since they aren’t as big as humans, or Galapagos Tortoises, their intestines and stomach will be relatively small. It would be impossible to digest plantation and meat with their small stomach and intestine. An insufficient amount of gastric juice will be produced to digest only small parts of the food. Without proper dissolving of food, nutrients wont be retrieved. This is why in every Caherbi Fostura, there are micro fauna such as bacteria round worm in their intestines to aid digestion of fibrous plantation.
References/Bibliography: